Urban Wilds Profile: Allandale Woods
by Benjamin Crouch

Allandale Woods is ninety acres of pure nature tucked away behind the large churches and luxury residences where Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury and Roslindale all converge. Though this site is the largest of the urban wilds, it is one of the least known. Red oaks and bitternut hickory dominate the canopy, while climax forest species like American beech are beginning to mature.

If it was not for the threat of Norway maples and other invaders of undisturbed woodlands, the woods would probably become dominated by beech and sugar maple in another hundred years. It will probably require human intervention to realize the climax of native woodland succession. Already, mature Norway maples are established along the edges of the site, while saplings are beginning to show up in the interior. If left unchecked, it is likely that these invasives will displace the rich native biodiversity that the site boasts.

The woods have been growing undisturbed since the late 19th century when the former farmland became fallow. Allandale Woods was probably grazing land as most of it has very shallow soils, the cap rock protruding in many areas. Terrific views of downtown can be observed from the largest outcrop in the western part of the site. A waste-height mile-long wall, at least one interesting relic remaining from the post-farm era, still bisects the site (see article excerpt below). The wall provides a fun, though somewhat intermittent, pathway running west-east through the site.

The habitat is remarkably pristine with relatively little invasion of alien plants and relatively free of trash. These are unusual qualities in the urban wilds, which due to their proximity to human habitation, are very vulnerable to dumping and plant invasions, both of which can deeply disturb an ecosystem. In other words, now is the time to act while the numbers of invasives are low and the site is relatively clean.

Excerpt from “Jamaica Plain’s Great Wall” - Walter H. Marx-Jamaica Plain Historian
“...When the city of Boston decided to add the Saw Mill Brook Valley to its Park System in the 1890's as a connector to a projected parkway leading to the Blue Hills south of the city, it bought some of Mrs. Brandegee's tract [a vast estate that included what is now Allandale Woods and Allandale Farm] and developed bridle paths through the area. The parkway was finally developed through the vast public works programs of the Depression...As part of the deal, the city agreed to build a low stone wall 18 inches wide and two-and-a-half feet high to mark the Brandegee border. The Boston/Brandegee wall, finally built in the Depression, may be only a mile in length, easily walked or followed within an hour...Our local wall has weathered its New England winters well…[Though], here and there the wall's top strip of concrete is gone.
The wall begins just beyond the Recuperative Center at the VFW Parkway and Centre Street, starting at the sidewalk to the right of the...Allandale Woods sign. A walk on the wall is easy since there is little overgrowth to maneuver around...[There are] frequent steep angles of ascent and decent, but it is easy enough to hop down...for a while and get back on...From the highest point in this wooded area, there is a fine southern view of the Blue Hills...All around are nature's quiet sounds…But that changes after the last rise! Properties along Crehore Road near Brookline's southern border strike the wall with their backyards, and Neoland Road ends right at it! The wall becomes a back fence until it terminates at the circle where the VFW and West Roxbury Parkways cross and again ends at a sidewalk.”
Reprinted with permission from the December 4, 1992 Jamaica Plain Gazette. Copyright © Gazette Publications, Inc.